This is a discussion on Flying suit from Last and First Men within the Science and Technology forums, part of the Topics of Interest category; Unfortunately, Stapledon gave little info about how it was supposed to work.
Flight is our ordinary means of locomotion. A ...

Hmm many of the technical problems and solutions we're applying to jetpacks might apply to this:

And there's the jetman

And ofcourse we do have wingsuits

And perhaps more importantly, all the technology around it, like electric jet engines:

Whether that would ever become more than a sport... It's hard to say, that's more of a social question then a technological one. I have a hard time imagining us - our modern day civilization - allowing for it, even though many of the things we do instead are just as crazy (like driving). But let's say you take a society where every kid has to know how to function and work in EVA suits and jumping between space stations with matching orbits is as routine as crossing the street is for us, then transitions to a planetary environment, maybe for them it would be the most obvious way to go, so much so that the idea of individuals not being able to fly would be viewed as an insane way to build your cities, an unimaginable transition from their perspective.

Whether that would ever become more than a sport... It's hard to say, that's more of a social question then a technological one. I have a hard time imagining us - our modern day civilization - allowing for it, even though many of the things we do instead are just as crazy (like driving).

The problems I can imagine are:
-cars are a status display, many people might not want to abandon them
-people might be scared of some idiot in flying suit throwing stones or something
-acrophobia

The problems I can imagine are:
-cars are a status display, many people might not want to abandon them
-people might be scared of some idiot in flying suit throwing stones or something
-acrophobia

Different flying-suits/equipment brands can be a status symbol just as much, and if they do come into mass adoption it would likely come so as what was once a toy for the rich descending to the rest of us through economy of scale - the Ford model T of flying equipment.

It's more the problems of allowing people to use these within the urban environment that I think would cause the major stops from mass acceptance.

People landing everywhere, losing control mid flight, crashing into buildings or onto people, lack of training and generally people using it to commit crime, and basically everything else that is already a problem with cars but will appear way worse when it's in the air. Self-driving cars might also lower our tolerance for that... conversely flying taxis might increase our tolerance to those things coming from above, even though it really shouldn't because that would actually cause more problems by introducing a mix of automation and human pilots. I guess it is possible that a combination of "drone taxis" (that are for some reason not called self-piloting helicopters) and drone deliveries could pave the way to it in the same way carriages literally paved the way for cars.
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